The Executive Secretary of Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETFund, Arc. Sonny Echono has stated that education and entrepreneurship linkage is Africa’s pathway to unleashing its greatness.
This was made known during the recently held 9th Africa Leadership Magazine Summit in London, United Kingdom.
Echono, who received the Africa Leadership Excellence Award in Educational Development from the Prime Minister of the Bahamas, HE. Philip Davis, also delivered a Keynote address in line with the theme of the Summit entitled “Africa Unleashed: Navigating Disruptions, Enhancing Opportunities,” described the event as a clarion call to galvanize policymakers, political and business leaders, diplomats, civil society and leaders of thought, along with other key stakeholders from across Africa, United Kingdom, and the rest of the globe to explore diverse pathways for sustainable socio-economic development in Africa.
He emphasized that Africa had commenced its journey towards repositioning itself in global affairs and advocated that policies and blueprints that would help the continent in navigating identified obstacles and optimize opportunities for its greatness must be considered as paramount.
Echono who had earlier served as Permanent Secretary to the Federal Ministry of Education, Nigeria with a wide range of experience on different aspects of education and its importance in nation building stated that unlocking Africa’s immense potential requires a multilayered approach and should feature a convergence of different pathways in ensuring the continent attains the desired greatness.
The Executive Secretary disclosed that: “Africa must first address its leadership crisis by adopting genuine democratic principles and values, promoting good governance and culture of transparency and accountability to achieve political stability and ensure lasting peace and security on the continent.
“Next, it must efficiently harness available funding sources (WB, AFDB, China-Exim, and other bilateral loans etc.) and channel same towards massive infrastructural projects, with particular focus on energy (power), transportation networks, and modern communication systems, to facilitate economic development.”
On deepening and strengthening regional integration, Echono stated that Africa must intra-trade and collaborate to benefit from the economies of scale and leverage Africa’s collective potential, while also promoting the need to revive a common identity and cultural renaissance that will assist the continent to preserve, celebrate, share and exports its rich heritage of customs and traditions in arts and culture, music and dance, fashion and cuisines, movies and athletic abilities through sport.
He added that it would provide a more equitable basis to build strategic partnerships with global players to access new markets, adopt new technologies and exploit investment policies. According to him, Africa must also partake in vast opportunities presented by environmental sustainability and climate action, protect its natural resources, and adopt conservation and renewable energy, to promote eco-friendly lifestyles and practices to guarantee a sustainable future.
“When Africa prioritizes its human capital by investing in health care, poverty reduction, social welfare, and education, it will build a healthy, skilled and productive population. Indeed, empowering Africa’s young and growing population will yield bountiful benefits and enable the continent to leverage its competitive advantage in natural resources and human capital.
“It will birth an era of rapid economic growth and a boom in innovation and entrepreneurship,” Sonny Echono affirmed.
On the role of entrepreneurship education, Echono noted that “entrepreneurship education seeks to provide students with the knowledge, skills and motivation to encourage entrepreneurial success.
“It is the handshake between education and entrepreneurship, through which entrepreneurial attributes are imbibed. However, the education systems of many African states no longer meet the requirements of the modern-day competitive world.
“There is disconnect between the curriculum offerings and the needs of society and this is reflected in the entrepreneurial development on the continent. Entrepreneurship education will develop students to think in a creative and critical manner, to recognize and pursue opportunities, to establish and operate new ventures. Currently, our educational systems are producing graduates that will be dependent on others for their livelihood as opposed to those who can create jobs and generate wealth.”
On how TETFund has assisted in bridging gaps in Nigeria which is the largest nation on the continent, the Executive Secretary disclosed that the Agency had funded many innovative initiatives such as Research for Impact and TETFund Alliance for Innovative Research, TETFAIR, targeted at deepening impactful research and uptake of research outcomes with potentials for commercialization, while adding that in 2023, over 600 lecturers from Nigeria’s public tertiary institutions benefited from the R4i program and had developed 95 prototypes from the initiative.
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Announcing the progress made on the TETFAIR, Echono said 44 teams of 176 researchers had been trained from tertiary institutions in Nigeria’s six geo-political zones, and the first cohorts designed 16 prototypes, one of which is a hearing aid that is self-programmable, affordable and more suitable for African markets.
“The team responsible for the design participated in the ARC Centre for Digital Innovation Entrepreneurship program at the Sheba Hospital in Israel, where they presented their innovation at the international community.
“Interestingly, all prototypes under TETFAIR had been tested and we have been receiving positive feedbacks from potential investors,” Echono disclosed.
He further revealed that the Agency was sponsoring the establishment of four regional multipurpose research laboratories; twelve innovation hubs; and twelve entrepreneurship centers in tertiary institutions across the country under the 2023/2024 interventions, in order to provide an enabling environment for conducting ground-breaking research and development of innovative technologies to enhance entrepreneurship, innovation and employability in line with global best practices.
While reiterating his belief on education serving as a powerhouse, linkage with entrepreneurship will catapult the continent to development, create jobs, promote technology adaptation, economic growth, and empower the continent’s population to drive sustainable development.
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